Pyeongtaek City Cracks Down on Illegal Activities Damaging Urban Aesthetics

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Jung Jun-seong] Pyeongtaek City has rolled up its sleeves to root out illegal activities that damage urban aesthetics.

On the 13th, Mayor Jung Jang-seon held a press briefing to present Pyeongtaek City's policy direction and announced plans to pursue active citizen awareness campaigns and large-scale cleanup activities, while calling for continued public interest and participation.

The illegal activities identified by the city include ▲illegal buildings ▲illegal advertisements ▲illegal dumping of garbage ▲illegal fishing and other acts that cause citizen inconvenience and threaten safety. The city has decided to take a strong stance against these violations.

Mayor Jung Jang-seon said, "We will ensure that habitual and chronic illegal activities no longer occur in Pyeongtaek City," and added, "We will do our utmost to improve urban aesthetics and create a clean and pleasant urban environment."

<Illegal Building Improvements>

The city will significantly strengthen administrative measures against illegal activities through amendments to building ordinances.

The weighted enforcement surcharge rate for violations of profit-oriented purposes such as room partitioning and rental will be increased from the current 30 percent to 100 percent, and the frequency of enforcement surcharge assessments will be increased from once per year to twice per year to continuously manage violating buildings.

Additionally, the city plans to expand the scope of criminal referrals to include not only existing target building owners but also construction contractors who commit violations, and to impose administrative sanctions on architects who designed and supervised violations such as room partitioning to facilitate illegal acts.

Alongside this, to prevent newly emerging violations in advance, the city will collaborate with the local architectural association to conduct inspection audits within six months of occupancy permit issuance, suppress illegal building occurrences in the early stages of building use, and continuously promote strengthened administrative measures to eliminate new illegal building violations.

<Creating Pyeongtaek Streets Free of Illegal Advertisements>

Focusing on major commercial districts such as Sosabeol, Seojae District, and Pyeongtaek Station, the city will form special cleanup task forces for both day and night, including weekends, to maintain a seamless cleanup system. The city plans to intensively crack down on advertisements that undermine public morals.

For illegal signage such as excessive sign numbers, the city will proceed with removal orders aggressively, while conducting guidance and legalization for simple unauthorized cases.

Additionally, in coordination with the Urban Railway Division, the city will pursue signage improvement projects for certain sections of Pyeongtaek Station. Upon completion, the project is expected to bring effects such as improved urban landscape and support regional business recovery.

<Creating an Environmental City Where Garbage Is Not Visible>

The city has converted garbage disposal methods in Sosabeol Cafe Street and Tongbok Market, areas where civil complaints had shown no signs of resolution for years, to building-by-building collection methods and scheduled collection times suited to regional characteristics. Unlike the past when illegal dumping was rampant, street environments have improved and merchants and residents in nearby areas have shown positive reactions.

Going forward, the city plans to actively review conversion to doorstep collection methods targeting major garbage disposal vulnerable areas such as officetel-dense areas and commercial zones, with a focus on improving the garbage collection system centered on citizen convenience.

Additionally, the city will strengthen crackdowns on illegal garbage dumping and related violations.

To this end, the city will establish regular joint public-private crackdowns composed of civic organizations, residents, and public officials, while operating a dedicated illegal dumping enforcement task force year-round to apply a zero-tolerance principle and take strict action against illegal garbage disposal.

Along with this, the city will additionally install 28 mobile environmental monitoring CCTVs this year (204 units total) that have shown high effectiveness in eliminating illegal dumping and receive positive responses from citizens through 24-hour surveillance, and will designate and operate responsible managers for key collection sites to make every effort in managing habitual dumping hotspots.

<Illegal Fishing, Camping, Cooking, and Other Activities>

In June 2020, the city designated a 7.5-kilometer section of Tongbok Stream as a no-fishing zone, followed by designation of a 47.7-kilometer section of Jinwi and Anseong Stream as a no-fishing zone in March 2021.

The city plans to strengthen crackdowns and administrative measures against illegal activities within no-fishing zones to secure safety for citizens using the streams, prevent water pollution, and improve stream aesthetics.

The city will form enforcement task forces to conduct year-round patrols and deploy enhanced surveillance activities including weekend and nighttime crackdowns to eliminate illegal activities in fishing-prohibited areas. Additionally, when violations are detected, the city will impose fines of up to 3 million won in accordance with Article 46 of the Stream Law, and plans to impose strong penalties including referral to judicial authorities for habitual violations.